Official Yerevan and Moscow have begun negotiations over the expansion of the Russian military base in Armenia. For this purpose, a representative delegation has departed for the Russian capital, following a decision signed by Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan at the beginning of last week.
The delegation is composed of high-ranking representatives from the Armenian ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the joint Armenian-Russian grouping, as well as the Cadastre Committee.
The relevant decision states:
“To send a delegation to the Russian Federation (Moscow) from 26 June to 1 July 2021 to participate in the 13th session of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on the transfer of land plots and real estate for the deployment and operation of the Russian military base on the territory of Armenia.
The 14-member delegation will be led by Armen Avetisyan, head of the Department of Construction and Troop Housing of the Ministry of Defense and chairman of the Armenian side of the intergovernmental commission.”
Kommersant has reported that the commission’s session will discuss issues related to the transfer to the Russian side of land plots and real estate necessary for the operation and activities of the military base.
In May, Nikol Pashinyan stated at one of the government sessions that the 102nd Russian military base had occupied two new positions in the Syunik Province, bordering Azerbaijan and Iran.
On 27 May, at a session of the Armenian government, a decision was made to allocate land plots with a total area of approximately 3.5 hectares in the Syunik Province to the border guard department of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stationed in Armenia, on the right of free use. Seven land parcels from the village of Shikahogh, the villages of Shvanidzor, Karchevan and Nrnadzor in Meghri, and the community of Tegh in the Syunik Province are to pass into the use of the Russian border guards.
The 13th session of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission began today in Moscow.
